Bearsden Academy

Bearsden Academy

Motto	"Committed to Excellence"
Established	1911
Type	State secondary school
Religion	Non-denominational
Head Teacher	George Cooper[1]
Chair of Parent Council	Iain Pringle[2]
Location	Stockiemuir Road Bearsden East Dunbartonshire G61 3SU Scotland Coordinates: 55°55′39″N 4°20′51″W / 55.9274°N 4.3476°W / 55.9274; -4.3476
Local authority	East Dunbartonshire
Staff	c. 100[3]
Students	c. 1188[4]
Gender	Coeducational
Ages	11–18
Colours
Publication	The BAnner
Website	Bearsden Academy

Bearsden Academy is a non-denominational, state secondary school in Bearsden, a suburb of Glasgow, Scotland.

Morven Road Site (1958–2010)

The old Morven Road site was redeveloped as a new housing estate, comprising luxury detached and flatted dwellings known as Academy Grove in 2009-12.^[5]

Stockiemuir Road Site

St Peter's College

The Stockiemuir Road site the academy occupies was originally a Roman Catholic seminary for the Archdiocese of Glasgow and then a teaching college. In 1874, the Archbishop of Glasgow, Charles Eyre originally established St Peter's College in Partickhill. In 1892, he decided to move it to Bearsden. The college chapel was the first to serve the local Catholic population.^[6]

With the arrival of a railway to the area, the population increased and the college chapel was expanded. In 1946, a fire destroyed the college, razing it to the ground. The decision was made by the archdiocese to abandon the site and build a new seminary in Cardross. The seminary was moved to Darleith House in Cardross and then Kilmahew House, before the new purpose-built St Peter's Seminary in Cardross was ready in 1966.^[7]

Teaching College

In 1966, to replace the seminary, a teaching college was built on the site. It was designed by the same architects as St Peter's Seminary, Cardross, the firm of Gillespie Kidd and Coia (GKC). It was built in a U-shape, with two teaching blocks, a physical education building and five student accommodation buildings. In 1969, the complex was opened, as the Notre Dame College of Education.^[8]

In 1981, it merged with Craiglockhart College and was renamed St Andrew's College of Education. On 4 March 1998, it was registered as a category A listed building.^[9] In 1999, it joined with University of Glasgow to become the Faculty of Education of the University of Glasgow. In 2002, teaching was relocated and the site was declared surplus to university requirements. After negotiations between Historic Scotland and East Dunbartonshire Council, it was decided to demolish the site and built a school.^[8]

The new building was built under a public private partnership. It opened in August 2010 to students and staff.

Extra-curricular activities

Bearsden Academy offers many clubs and societies, catering to a wide range of tastes.

Music

The Music Department runs the school's:

• Orchestra
• Wind Band
• Jazz Band
• String Orchestra
• Baroque Group
• Girls' Choir
• Male Vocal Group
• Samba Band

Most of these perform at the school concerts, one at Christmas and another in June.

Engineering

The school has a successful Young Engineers' Club.

Debating

The Debating Society competes in local, Scottish, British and European competitions, and has often performed well in these events.^[10] The school has reached high standards and reached the semi-finals of the ESU Schools' MACE competition for two consecutive years (2010-2011 and 2011-2012), as well as becoming National semifinalists in the Institute of Ideas "Debating Matters" competition, and frequently reaching the National rounds of the European Youth Parliament competition. The society has also organised hustings for the Scottish Youth Parliament candidates and even for the Regional List candidates for the 2011 Holyrood election.

The current President of the Debating Society is Ciarán Harkness.

Sports

Controversies

32-year-old pupil

In 1993 a 32 year old man (known as the 17 year old Canadian orphan Brandon Lee) with a practised Canadian accent, actually Brian MacKinnon, a former medical student from Dundee Medical School spent a year at the school living in Whitehurst near the A810, being born 3 March 1963. His older sister was born in 1955. He had attended the same school in the 1970s leaving in 1980, being taught by the same teachers, and had gained four A grades and two B grades. He shaved his eyebrows to look younger and permed his hair. He was able to gain a place to study medicine at the University of Dundee in 1994. He had starred in a school production of South Pacific (he was good at acting) and gained six highers (including five A grades, taking English, Maths, Chemistry, Physics and Biology). Teachers had remarked on his 'mature appearance'. He had claimed his father was a Professor of Zoology and his mother was an opera singer, when in reality one was a fireman and the other a nurse. He told people he had learnt to drive 'on a Canadian farm when he was 14'. It all went wrong on a holiday to Benidorm in September 1995 when his passport was discovered by three girls from Bearsden.^{[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]}

School roll

Notable alumni

• Brian MacKinnon^[11]
• David Moyes,^[30] outgoing manager of Everton F.C. and incoming manager of Manchester United^[31]
• Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand^[30]
• Katherine Grainger, Olympic Gold medallist rower ^[32]
• Edwyn Collins of Orange Juice (band), Singer/Songwriter ^[33]

References

External links

• Bearsden Academy's home page
• Bearden Academy's page on Scottish Schools Online